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VOLUME IV, No. 3. MARCH, 1914 THE DELINQUENT (FORMERLY THE REVIEW) A MONTHLY PERIODICAL, PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL PRISONERS’ AID ASSOCIATION AT 135 EAST 15th STREET, NEW YORK CITY. THIS COPY TEN CENTS. ONE DOLLAR A YEAR
THE “DOPE HABIT”
A COURSE FOR PRUSSIAN PRISON OFFICIALS AND OTHERS By August Plaschke, Ministry Of Justice, Prussia
IMPORTANCE OF AN UP-TO-DATE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT IN A PENAL INSTITUTION. By John L. Whitman, Superintendent Chicago House Of Correction
A SCENE FROM “THE MAN INSIDE.”
Act II, Scene 16.
EVENTS IN BRIEF.
Legislation in Maryland.—Prison reform legislation, as a result of the year’s investigation of Maryland State prison and the subsequent discussion of prison conditions in that State, eventuated through a report on February 19th by the Penal Commission to the Governor of Maryland. The report advocated a considerable amount of progressive penal legislation, mainly as follows: One bill provides for an unpaid advisory board of parole, in order that all the essential features of the indeterminate sentence principle may be worked out. Further bills provide for the suspension of sentences, for indeterminate sentences, and for the release of prisoners on parole. A state board of control is established for the management of the State Penitentiary and the Maryland House of Correction, and provision is made for the establishment of a State prison for women. The operation of a penal farm is recommended in connection with the State Penitentiary or the House of Correction. A hospital for tuberculosis prisoners is recommended.
The Lash in Delaware.—The “Umpire,” which is the prison paper of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, reprinted from the Delinquent the article by Governor Miller, of Delaware, defending the whipping post, and published the following editorial as a rejoinder:
Why Prisoners’ Families Aren’t Supported by Prisoners’ Earnings.—Editorially the Boston Herald says:
Parole In Kentucky.—According to the Louisville Herald, since the State Prison South was converted into a State reformatory sixteen years ago, 4,670 prisoners have been paroled, of whom 2,666 have received final discharges. During the parole period the sentences of 295 expired. Six hundred violated their paroles and were returned to the institution. Five hundred and eighty-nine are parole violators and are at large: 433 are still reporting, and seventy-eight have died while at large.
The Kansas State Prison Makes Money.—According to the Leavenworth, Kansas, Post, the State prison at Lansing saved the State about one half million dollars during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1913. This, according to those who should know, is a very conservative estimate. It represents about one-half of the appropriation asked for by the warden to be used in constructing the new penitentiary. The twine and brick plants and the coal mine are the different departments where the most of the saving was made.
State Use in Ohio.—Printing of all the blank forms used by the counties of Ohio is a venture upon which the State soon may embark as one of the features of the “state use” plan of employing the convicts in the Ohio Penitentiary. Under the law the State Board of Administration sells all products made in the institutions to counties and other political subdivisions who are compelled to make purchases from the State. The blank supply business has been a lucrative one for the dealers.
The Governors on Road Work by Prisoners.—Twenty-five governors have placed themselves on record as favoring the working of convicts in the construction and repair of highways, according to a compilation of the discussions of prison labor in their last messages to the legislature, recently issued by the national committee on prison labor.
Transportation Again?—The question of exiling habitual or professional criminals is being agitated in England. In a recent report of the British prison commissioners it is noted that the number of persons having previous convictions has in late years risen from 78 to 87 per cent., says The Buffalo Express. The latest available figures show that in England only 118 of the 916 sentenced to penal servitude had not been previously convicted and that the greater number of old offenders had from six to twenty convictions against them. It is estimated that at the present time there are in London alone 20,000 habitual criminals. “The only way of dealing with these habitual criminals,” says an English authority, “is to expel them from the community against which they wage incessant war. A third conviction should cause the prisoner to be deported to some island and reduced to a state of industrial serfdom, in which he could earn his living.”
Ohio Penitentiary Breaks Silence.—One of the most sweeping changes made in prison rules by Warden Thomas since he was placed in charge of the penitentiary came on February 24, when he announced that convicts would be permitted to talk to each other while working.
A Good Idea.—From the Elizabeth, New Jersey, News, comes this information: “What New Jersey Is Doing for the Young Man Who Breaks Its Laws,” is the title of an instructive address being delivered throughout the State by the Rev. Frank Moore, of this city, superintendent of the New Jersey Reformatory. In his address Mr. Moore plainly shows the efforts of the State at its institutions to uplift manhood and instill higher ideals of living.
Prison Publicity.—The Montreal Star says that the farther the inquiry into the Kingston Penitentiary goes, the more it is evident that what the discipline of any prison needs is the wholesome and curative application of publicity. Punishments ought not to be inflicted upon convicts without the fact being made public. Any mischiefs which may arise will be possible only because the authorities of a prison have the power to punish prisoners behind their grim walls in entire secrecy.
State Use in New York.—The Prison Commission of New York bewails the reluctance of municipalities to obey the law relative to the purchase of prison-made goods.
Probable Abolition of Contract Labor at Chicago Bridewell.—The practise of hiring to private companies at a wage of a few cents a day the prisoners in the Bridewell, the penal institution of Chicago and Cook county, will be abolished in May if the recommendations of Superintendent John Whitman are acted upon favorably by the city council, says the Christian Science Monitor of Boston.
Vermont’s State Prison Warden Resigns.—Following closely on our recent account of Warden Lovell’s “honor system” in the Vermont State Prison, comes the following from the Boston Post, under date of February 24th:
Prisoners’ Wages Reduced in Ohio.—Owing to an overstock of labor in the Penitentiary and the Mansfield Reformatory, the State board of administration has been compelled to cut the wage scale two cents on the hour. Hereafter, prisoners in the two institutions will receive a maximum of three cents an hour instead of five cents. The minimum of one cent an hour remains unchanged, says the Columbus Journal.
Parole Law Recommended For Rhode Island.—The Board of Control and Supply of Rhode Island, which has charge of the State penal institutions, recommended in its annual report to the Legislature that a parole law be put into effect in this State. Under the proposed plan, prisoners who have served a portion of their sentence may regain their freedom and retain it as long as they live up to the terms of their parole.
Convicts Build Arizona Bridge.—“Cross-continental automobile tourists who will take the southwestern route to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, will cross the Salt river in going from Phoenix to Tempe over a substantial concrete bridge 1,508 feet long instead of having to ford either a wide raging torrent or a deep long, sandy, dried-up riverbed, according to season of the year,” says Dr. Charles G. Percival, in his new book, “The Trail of the Bull Dog,” which deals with the writer’s two years’ automobile trip of 50,000 miles. “The interesting part of this bridge lies in the fact that it was built of concrete in twenty-seven months entirely by convicts’ labor. The bridge is eighteen feet wide between curbs and 240 tons of steel rod and wire are contained in its construction. The bridge is floored with reinforced concrete and a two-inch bitulithic dressing. Eleven piers, each 125 feet in length, support the bridge, which is excellently lighted by electricity at both approaches, and throughout its entire length from power generated at the Roosevelt dam seventy miles away.”
In Iowa.—Prisoners at the Fort Madison penitentiary get increased pay and shorter hours through an agreement made by the State board of control for the cancellation of one prison contract and the transference of the contract of the Fort Madison Chair company to the Fort Madison Tool company. This takes 175 men out of the contract labor system.
Auburn Inmates Celebrate Under Their Own Captains.—Fourteen hundred convicts in Auburn prison, observing Lincoln’s Birthday, marched from cells to chapel and mess hall solely in charge of convict captains elected by the inmates several weeks ago as their representatives in the Mutual Welfare League. The convict officers relieved the regular officers and maintained splendid discipline.
Tynan’s Way.—Writing to the New York Sun, Warden Tynan of the Colorado State Penitentiary says:
Tramps and the Railroads.—Crimes committed against railroads are increasing, according to the annual report of the police department of the Baltimore and Ohio system, which shows that 13,129 arrests were made during 1913, as compared with 10,417 arrests during 1912. There were 8,449 convictions in 1913, while in 1912 the number of convictions was 6,515. This increase in crime added materially to the expense of the railroad for doing business during the year.
Changes in Military Prisons.—Revision of the articles of war—the military law of the United States that has stood unchanged since 1906—is proposed in a bill passed without a dissenting vote by the Senate, in February, designed to make the soldier guilty of purely military offenses an object of reformatory discipline instead of a penitentiary convict with the criminal stamp upon him.
Frank Sanborn on the State Control of County Jails.—In a letter to the Boston Transcript, Mr. Sanborn writes as follows:
The Booher Bill Passes the House.—On March 4th, by a vote of 302 to 30, the House passed the Booher bill that virtually prohibits the shipping of convict made goods in interstate commerce. The measure adopts the principle of the Webb law which provides that liquor shipped into “dry” territory shall be subject to local and State laws prohibiting the traffic in alcoholic liquors.
Gruesome!—In Virginia, according to the Richmond Journal, the body of a convict dying in prison is forfeit to the State; no matter if he has friends or money to receive it and give it decent burial. When a man dies in prison, whether he was sent for one year or for thirty years, his body is sent to the medical colleges of the State for dissection purposes. If he commit some horrible crime, which demands a death penalty, this is not the case. His family may receive his body and bury it. But the life convict and the convict who dies in prison are not given this privilege under the present law.
National Agitation for State Use System.—Organized labor has called upon manufacturers and citizens generally throughout the country to support the National Committee on Prison Labor, in its endeavor to bring about in the different States a system whereby prisoners shall be employed directly under State control of roads, farms, or in manufacturing articles for use in the institutions and departments under the control of the State. For the past four years this committee and the labor unions, especially the United Garment Workers of America, have been fighting the leasing system, whereby the labor of the convict is sold to the highest bidder, the bid always being from 50 to 75 per cent. less than is paid to the workers in the same line of industry outside of our penal institutions.
Pardons.—Governor David I. Walsh, of Massachusetts, has said he intends to refer to the members of the Board of Pardon and Parole, all petitions for commutation of sentence as well as of pardon, together with the ordinary cases which, under the statute creating the board, the Governor may refer to it.
Farming by Texas Prisoners.—Texas is to try the honor system among convicts in one of its prisons, says the Little Rock, Ark., Gazette, and is even going a step further by providing a profit-sharing plan to encourage prisoners in thrift and industry. Fifty white men have been selected for the test, and if the new plan proves feasible, it means that the entire prison system of that State will be revolutionized in the near future.
Transcriber’s Note:
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